


The Santos Interview

by Hackney123



Series: Washington Live [7]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23277784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hackney123/pseuds/Hackney123
Summary: For the penultimate show of the series Christian decides he needs to go all out as the ratings for the show have started to slip.  It has been made clear that if the ratings do not pick up then he will not be presenting the next series.
Series: Washington Live [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1527422
Kudos: 3





	The Santos Interview

**Author's Note:**

> A/N – Christian Salviant and the show Washington Live are figments of my imagination any resemblance to any real person or show is accidental.

A wary Christian Salviant bounded on to the set with a wide smile. Looking at the camera he said.  
‘Tonight’s show is a very special one my guest tonight is former President Matthew Santos everyone give him a big hand.’

Matthew Santos strode on to the set with purposeful strides which hid that he was approaching sixty. After grabbing Christian in a bear hug, he took his seat. The night before Matthew and Helen were discussing his appearance on the show originally the idea was for them both to go on. However, Helen decided not to do the show after watching the show with Ainsley and Kate. The two of them had a bet that the first thing that Matt would be asked about would be the rumours around Helen’s sexuality especially after he asked Edie about it.

‘President Santos may I start by asking you about the rumours that persisted during your presidency that the first lady was bisexual. Those rumours were never denied but you never divorced which has left some people wondering whether they were true. What do you have to say about them.’  
‘Firstly, that is $50 I owe my wife. Secondly, the fact that the rumours have never been denied is not evidence of their veracity. You will recall the cyclist Lance Armstrong for years denied using performance enhancing drugs, but he was eventually unmasked as a drug cheat. Thirdly, when me and my wife hit a bump in the road we sit down and talk about it and resolve the problem. That is why I am still on my first marriage and you are on your third I work at my marriage.’  
‘So, are you saying the rumours are true?’  
‘I am not commenting either way on them. My wife has a right to her privacy, and we all need to respect that.’  
‘A lot of people were taken by surprise when you did not offer a position in your administration to CJ Cregg. This was especially the case with inheriting the war in Kazakhstan. Why did you choose not to do so.’  
‘As CJ said herself when she was on your show about a month back and also as Joshua Lyman said in his autobiography Presidential Bulldog I did try and get her to stay on Josh made a last ditch attempt to get her to stay on the day of my inauguration. In hindsight looking at all she has achieved I think she made the right choice.’  
‘Another Bartlet administration official you did not find a place for was Commander Harper. Why did you not offer her a post.’  
‘I am going to put my hands up to that one I blew that one. I had the choice of going for her or the more experienced Anderson Glen. I went against the advice of Josh Lyman and chose Glen. Fortunately, they had invented this thing called Skype so I could still get her advice when needed.’

Christian was taken aback by the admission he was expecting a strong defence of his choice of National Security Adviser. So, he decided to press the point.

‘But once you realised your mistake why did you not offer her a post was it pride.’  
‘No when I tried to discuss the issue with her, she told me not to offer her something that she would have to turn down. At the time she had just started to settle down and make roots in Oregon. This was the first time she had the opportunity to do that she came from a military family so growing up she was always moving around. Then it was the same with her own military career. Her military background was such that if I had offered her the post, she would have felt compelled to accept. I therefore acceded to her request and did not make the offer.’  
‘In relation to Kazakhstan General Alexander in his autobiography The Soldier’s Way complained that when he asked you for an extra ten thousand men to handle the situation in Kazakhstan you refused. Why did you refuse his request?’  
‘I did not refuse the request out of hand and I note you forgot to say that General Alexander actually said that I chose to listen to my Chief of Staff who had never served in the military over his military advisers. What I said to the Joint Chiefs was to give me a plan that showed what the ten thousand men were going to do. I was not going to send another ten thousand men into a potential war zone without a plan of what they were going to do. My Secretary of State was able to negotiate a settlement before the plan could be delivered so I did not need to send the men.’  
‘Can I now turn to your domestic agenda. Many people were surprised that instead of dealing with the economy you focussed your energies firstly to the areas of health and education. Surely you should have dealt with the economy first then moved on to other areas.’  
‘We had healthy discussion on that point in the Council on Economic Affairs. There was a view that said that. However, the opposing argument which I agreed with was that if you did it that way you risked a booming economy which created jobs that there was not the skill base to fill. So, we needed to make sure that we had the people with the right skills to grow the economy. With health when I came into power a fifth of the population could not afford healthcare. That meant when they got ill, they took longer to get better because they could not get the treatment they needed to get better faster.’  
‘That is all we have time for next week for the final show of the series we will have President Santos’s predecessor on President Josiah Bartlet. For now, please give a big hand to President Santos.’


End file.
